With the new criteria, a person must be determined to have a "mental illness" before they can be hospitalized against their will. Second, the person has to be perceived to pose an imminent threat to the safety of themself or others, or be shown to be “gravely disabled,” meaning they can not provide for the necessities of their basic survival.

"It is commonly interpreted that dangerousness refers to physical harm to self (suicide) or physical harm to others (homicide), and that the requirement for imminence means that the threat must be likely to occur in the close future" (Testa & West, 2010).